TAR(1)                                                                                           GNU TAR Manual                                                                                          TAR(1)

NAME
       tar - an archiving utility

SYNOPSIS
   Traditional usage
       tar {A|c|d|r|t|u|x}[GnSkUWOmpsMBiajJzZhPlRvwo] [ARG...]

   UNIX-style usage
       tar -A [OPTIONS] ARCHIVE ARCHIVE

       tar -c [-f ARCHIVE] [OPTIONS] [FILE...]

       tar -d [-f ARCHIVE] [OPTIONS] [FILE...]

       tar -t [-f ARCHIVE] [OPTIONS] [MEMBER...]

       tar -r [-f ARCHIVE] [OPTIONS] [FILE...]

       tar -u [-f ARCHIVE] [OPTIONS] [FILE...]

       tar -x [-f ARCHIVE] [OPTIONS] [MEMBER...]

   GNU-style usage
       tar {--catenate|--concatenate} [OPTIONS] ARCHIVE ARCHIVE

       tar --create [--file ARCHIVE] [OPTIONS] [FILE...]

       tar {--diff|--compare} [--file ARCHIVE] [OPTIONS] [FILE...]

       tar --delete [--file ARCHIVE] [OPTIONS] [MEMBER...]

       tar --append [-f ARCHIVE] [OPTIONS] [FILE...]

       tar --list [-f ARCHIVE] [OPTIONS] [MEMBER...]

       tar --test-label [--file ARCHIVE] [OPTIONS] [LABEL...]

       tar --update [--file ARCHIVE] [OPTIONS] [FILE...]

       tar --update [-f ARCHIVE] [OPTIONS] [FILE...]

       tar {--extract|--get} [-f ARCHIVE] [OPTIONS] [MEMBER...]

NOTE
       This  manpage  is a short description of GNU tar.  For a detailed discussion, including examples and usage recommendations, refer to the GNU Tar Manual available in texinfo format.  If the info reader
       and the tar documentation are properly installed on your system, the command

           info tar

       should give you access to the complete manual.

       You can also view the manual using the info mode in emacs(1), or find it in various formats online at

           http://www.gnu.org/software/tar/manual

       If any discrepancies occur between this manpage and the GNU Tar Manual, the later shall be considered the authoritative source.

DESCRIPTION
       GNU tar is an archiving program designed to store multiple files in a single file (an archive), and to manipulate such archives.  The archive can be either a regular file or  a  device  (e.g.  a  tape
       drive, hence the name of the program, which stands for tape archiver), which can be located either on the local or on a remote machine.

   Option styles
       Options  to GNU tar can be given in three different styles.  In traditional style, the first argument is a cluster of option letters and all subsequent arguments supply arguments to those options that
       require them.  The arguments are read in the same order as the option letters.  Any command line words that remain after all options has been processed are treated as non-optional arguments:  file  or
       archive member names.

       For example, the c option requires creating the archive, the v option requests the verbose operation, and the f option takes an argument that sets the name of the archive to operate upon.  The follow‐
       ing command, written in the traditional style, instructs tar to store all files from the directory /etc into the archive file etc.tar verbosely listing the files being archived:

       tar cfv etc.tar /etc

       In UNIX or short-option style, each option letter is prefixed with a single dash, as in other command line utilities.  If an option takes argument, the argument follows it, either as a  separate  com‐
       mand  line  word,  or  immediately  following  the  option.   However,  if  the  option takes an optional argument, the argument must follow the option letter without any intervening whitespace, as in
       -g/tmp/snar.db.

       Any number of options not taking arguments can be clustered together after a single dash, e.g. -vkp.  Options that take arguments (whether mandatory or optional), can appear at the end of such a clus‐
       ter, e.g. -vkpf a.tar.

       The example command above written in the short-option style could look like:

       tar -cvf etc.tar /etc
       or
       tar -c -v -f etc.tar /etc

       In  GNU  or  long-option style, each option begins with two dashes and has a meaningful name, consisting of lower-case letters and dashes.  When used, the long option can be abbreviated to its initial
       letters, provided that this does not create ambiguity.  Arguments to long options are supplied either as a separate command line word, immediately following the option, or separated from the option by
       an equals sign with no intervening whitespace.  Optional arguments must always use the latter method.

       Here are several ways of writing the example command in this style:

       tar --create --file etc.tar --verbose /etc
       or (abbreviating some options):
       tar --cre --file=etc.tar --verb /etc

       The options in all three styles can be intermixed, although doing so with old options is not encouraged.

   Operation mode
       The options listed in the table below tell GNU tar what operation it is to perform.  Exactly one of them must be given.  Meaning of non-optional arguments depends on the operation mode requested.

       -A, --catenate, --concatenate
              Append archive to the end of another archive.  The arguments are treated as the names of archives to append.  All archives must be of the same format as the archive they are appended to, other‐
              wise the resulting archive might be unusable with non-GNU implementations of tar.  Notice also that when more than one archive is given, the members from archives other than the first one  will
              be accessible in the resulting archive only if using the -i (--ignore-zeros) option.

              Compressed archives cannot be concatenated.

       -c, --create
              Create a new archive.  Arguments supply the names of the files to be archived.  Directories are archived recursively, unless the --no-recursion option is given.

       -d, --diff, --compare
              Find differences between archive and file system.  The arguments are optional and specify archive members to compare.  If not given, the current working directory is assumed.

       --delete
              Delete from the archive.  The arguments supply names of the archive members to be removed.  At least one argument must be given.

              This option does not operate on compressed archives.  There is no short option equivalent.

       -r, --append
              Append files to the end of an archive.  Arguments have the same meaning as for -c (--create).

       -t, --list
              List the contents of an archive.  Arguments are optional.  When given, they specify the names of the members to list.

       --test-label
              Test  the archive volume label and exit.  When used without arguments, it prints the volume label (if any) and exits with status 0.  When one or more command line arguments are given.  tar com‐
              pares the volume label with each argument.  It exits with code 0 if a match is found, and with code 1 otherwise.  No output is displayed, unless used together with the -v (--verbose) option.

              There is no short option equivalent for this option.

       -u, --update
              Append files which are newer than the corresponding copy in the archive.  Arguments have the same meaning as with -c and -r options.  Notice, that newer files don't replace  their  old  archive
              copies, but instead are appended to the end of archive.  The resulting archive can thus contain several members of the same name, corresponding to various versions of the same file.

       -x, --extract, --get
              Extract files from an archive.  Arguments are optional.  When given, they specify names of the archive members to be extracted.

       --show-defaults
              Show built-in defaults for various tar options and exit.  No arguments are allowed.

       -?, --help
              Display a short option summary and exit.  No arguments allowed.

       --usage
              Display a list of available options and exit.  No arguments allowed.

       --version
              Print program version and copyright information and exit.

OPTIONS
   Operation modifiers
       --check-device
              Check device numbers when creating incremental archives (default).

       -g, --listed-incremental=FILE
              Handle new GNU-format incremental backups.  FILE is the name of a snapshot file, where tar stores additional information which is used to decide which files changed since the previous incremen‐
              tal dump and, consequently, must be dumped again.  If FILE does not exist when creating an archive, it will be created and all files will be added to the resulting archive (the level  0  dump).
              To create incremental archives of non-zero level N, create a copy of the snapshot file created during the level N-1, and use it as FILE.

              When listing or extracting, the actual contents of FILE is not inspected, it is needed only due to syntactical requirements.  It is therefore common practice to use /dev/null in its place.

       --hole-detection=METHOD
              Use METHOD to detect holes in sparse files.  This option implies --sparse.  Valid values for METHOD are seek and raw.  Default is seek with fallback to raw when not applicable.

       -G, --incremental
              Handle old GNU-format incremental backups.

       --ignore-failed-read
              Do not exit with nonzero on unreadable files.

       --level=NUMBER
              Set dump level for created listed-incremental archive.  Currently only --level=0 is meaningful: it instructs tar to truncate the snapshot file before dumping, thereby forcing a level 0 dump.

       -n, --seek
              Assume the archive is seekable.  Normally tar determines automatically whether the archive can be seeked or not.  This option is intended for use in cases when such recognition fails.  It takes
              effect only if the archive is open for reading (e.g. with --list or --extract options).

       --no-check-device
              Do not check device numbers when creating incremental archives.

       --no-seek
              Assume the archive is not seekable.

       --occurrence[=N]
              Process only the Nth occurrence of each file in the archive.  This option is valid only when used with one of the following subcommands: --delete, --diff, --extract or --list and when a list of
              files is given either on the command line or via the -T option.  The default N is 1.

       --restrict
              Disable the use of some potentially harmful options.

       --sparse-version=MAJOR[.MINOR]
              Set  version  of the sparse format to use (implies --sparse).  This option implies --sparse.  Valid argument values are 0.0, 0.1, and 1.0.  For a detailed discussion of sparse formats, refer to
              the GNU Tar Manual, appendix D, "Sparse Formats".  Using info reader, it can be accessed running the following command: info tar 'Sparse Formats'.

       -S, --sparse
              Handle sparse files efficiently.  Some files in the file system may have segments which were actually never written (quite often these are database files created by such systems as DBM).   When
              given this option, tar attempts to determine if the file is sparse prior to archiving it, and if so, to reduce the resulting archive size by not dumping empty parts of the file.

   Overwrite control
       These options control tar actions when extracting a file over an existing copy on disk.

       -k, --keep-old-files
              Don't replace existing files when extracting.

       --keep-newer-files
              Don't replace existing files that are newer than their archive copies.

       --keep-directory-symlink
              Don't replace existing symlinks to directories when extracting.

       --no-overwrite-dir
              Preserve metadata of existing directories.

       --one-top-level[=DIR]
              Extract all files into DIR, or, if used without argument, into a subdirectory named by the base name of the archive (minus standard compression suffixes recognizable by --auto-compress).

       --overwrite
              Overwrite existing files when extracting.

       --overwrite-dir
              Overwrite metadata of existing directories when extracting (default).

       --recursive-unlink
              Recursively remove all files in the directory prior to extracting it.

       --remove-files
              Remove files from disk after adding them to the archive.

       --skip-old-files
              Don't replace existing files when extracting, silently skip over them.

       -U, --unlink-first
              Remove each file prior to extracting over it.

       -W, --verify
              Verify the archive after writing it.

   Output stream selection
       --ignore-command-error

       Ignore subprocess exit codes.

       --no-ignore-command-error
              Treat non-zero exit codes of children as error (default).

       -O, --to-stdout
              Extract files to standard output.

       --to-command=COMMAND
              Pipe  extracted  files  to COMMAND.  The argument is the pathname of an external program, optionally with command line arguments.  The program will be invoked and the contents of the file being
              extracted supplied to it on its standard input.  Additional data will be supplied via the following environment variables:

              TAR_FILETYPE
                     Type of the file. It is a single letter with the following meaning:

                             f           Regular file
                             d           Directory
                             l           Symbolic link
                             h           Hard link
                             b           Block device
                             c           Character device

                     Currently only regular files are supported.

              TAR_MODE
                     File mode, an octal number.

              TAR_FILENAME
                     The name of the file.

              TAR_REALNAME
                     Name of the file as stored in the archive.

              TAR_UNAME
                     Name of the file owner.

              TAR_GNAME
                     Name of the file owner group.

              TAR_ATIME
                     Time of last access. It is a decimal number, representing seconds since the Epoch.  If the archive provides times with nanosecond precision, the nanoseconds are appended to the timestamp
                     after a decimal point.

              TAR_MTIME
                     Time of last modification.

              TAR_CTIME
                     Time of last status change.

              TAR_SIZE
                     Size of the file.

              TAR_UID
                     UID of the file owner.

              TAR_GID
                     GID of the file owner.

              Additionally, the following variables contain information about tar operation mode and the archive being processed:

              TAR_VERSION
                     GNU tar version number.

              TAR_ARCHIVE
                     The name of the archive tar is processing.

              TAR_BLOCKING_FACTOR
                     Current blocking factor, i.e. number of 512-byte blocks in a record.

              TAR_VOLUME
                     Ordinal number of the volume tar is processing (set if reading a multi-volume archive).

              TAR_FORMAT
                     Format of the archive being processed.  One of: gnu, oldgnu, posix, ustar, v7.

              TAR_SUBCOMMAND
                     A short option (with a leading dash) describing the operation tar is executing.

   Handling of file attributes
       --atime-preserve[=METHOD]
              Preserve access times on dumped files, either by restoring the times after reading (METHOD=replace, this is the default) or by not setting the times in the first place (METHOD=system)

       --delay-directory-restore
              Delay setting modification times and permissions of extracted directories until the end of extraction.  Use this option when extracting from an archive which has unusual member ordering.

       --group=NAME[:GID]
              Force  NAME  as  group  for  added  files.  If GID is not supplied, NAME can be either a user name or numeric GID.  In this case the missing part (GID or name) will be inferred from the current
              host's group database.

              When used with --group-map=FILE, affects only those files whose owner group is not listed in FILE.

       --group-map=FILE
              Read group translation map from FILE.  Empty lines are ignored.  Comments are introduced with # sign and extend to the end of line.  Each non-empty line in FILE defines translation for a single
              group.  It must consist of two fields, delimited by any amount of whitespace:

              OLDGRP NEWGRP[:NEWGID]

              OLDGRP is either a valid group name or a GID prefixed with +.  Unless NEWGID is supplied, NEWGRP must also be either a valid group name or a +GID.  Otherwise, both NEWGRP and NEWGID need not be
              listed in the system group database.

              As a result, each input file with owner group OLDGRP will be stored in archive with owner group NEWGRP and GID NEWGID.

       --mode=CHANGES
              Force symbolic mode CHANGES for added files.

       --mtime=DATE-OR-FILE
              Set mtime for added files.  DATE-OR-FILE is either a date/time in almost arbitrary format, or the name of an existing file.  In the latter case the mtime of that file will be used.

       -m, --touch
              Don't extract file modified time.

       --no-delay-directory-restore
              Cancel the effect of the prior --delay-directory-restore option.

       --no-same-owner
              Extract files as yourself (default for ordinary users).

       --no-same-permissions
              Apply the user's umask when extracting permissions from the archive (default for ordinary users).

       --numeric-owner
              Always use numbers for user/group names.

       --owner=NAME[:UID]
              Force NAME as owner for added files.  If UID is not supplied, NAME can be either a user name or numeric UID.  In this case the missing part (UID or name)  will  be  inferred  from  the  current
              host's user database.

              When used with --owner-map=FILE, affects only those files whose owner is not listed in FILE.

       --owner-map=FILE
              Read owner translation map from FILE.  Empty lines are ignored.  Comments are introduced with # sign and extend to the end of line.  Each non-empty line in FILE defines translation for a single
              UID.  It must consist of two fields, delimited by any amount of whitespace:

              OLDUSR NEWUSR[:NEWUID]

              OLDUSR is either a valid user name or a UID prefixed with +.  Unless NEWUID is supplied, NEWUSR must also be either a valid user name or a +UID.  Otherwise, both NEWUSR and NEWUID need  not  be
              listed in the system user database.

              As a result, each input file owned by OLDUSR will be stored in archive with owner name NEWUSR and UID NEWUID.

       -p, --preserve-permissions, --same-permissions
              extract information about file permissions (default for superuser)

       --same-owner
              Try extracting files with the same ownership as exists in the archive (default for superuser).

       -s, --preserve-order, --same-order
              Sort names to extract to match archive

       --sort=ORDER
              When creating an archive, sort directory entries according to ORDER, which is one of none, name, or inode.

              The default is --sort=none, which stores archive members in the same order as returned by the operating system.

              Using --sort=name ensures the member ordering in the created archive is uniform and reproducible.

              Using --sort=inode reduces the number of disk seeks made when creating the archive and thus can considerably speed up archivation.  This sorting order is supported only if the underlying system
              provides the necessary information.

   Extended file attributes
       --acls Enable POSIX ACLs support.

       --no-acls
              Disable POSIX ACLs support.

       --selinux
              Enable SELinux context support.

       --no-selinux
              Disable SELinux context support.

       --xattrs
              Enable extended attributes support.

       --no-xattrs
              Disable extended attributes support.

       --xattrs-exclude=PATTERN
              Specify the exclude pattern for xattr keys.  PATTERN is a POSIX regular expression, e.g. --xattrs-exclude='^user.', to exclude attributes from the user namespace.

       --xattrs-include=PATTERN
              Specify the include pattern for xattr keys.  PATTERN is a POSIX regular expression.

   Device selection and switching
       -f, --file=ARCHIVE
              Use archive file or device ARCHIVE.  If this option is not given, tar will first examine the environment variable `TAPE'.  If it is set, its value will be used as the archive name.   Otherwise,
              tar will assume the compiled-in default.  The default value can be inspected either using the --show-defaults option, or at the end of the tar --help output.

              An  archive  name that has a colon in it specifies a file or device on a remote machine.  The part before the colon is taken as the machine name or IP address, and the part after it as the file
              or device pathname, e.g.:

              --file=remotehost:/dev/sr0

              An optional username can be prefixed to the hostname, placing a @ sign between them.

              By default, the remote host is accessed via the rsh(1) command.  Nowadays it is common to use ssh(1) instead.  You can do so by giving the following command line option:

              --rsh-command=/usr/bin/ssh

              The remote machine should have the rmt(8) command installed.  If its pathname does not match tar's default, you can inform tar about the correct pathname using the --rmt-command option.

       --force-local
              Archive file is local even if it has a colon.

       -F, --info-script=COMMAND, --new-volume-script=COMMAND
              Run COMMAND at the end of each tape (implies -M).  The command can include arguments.  When started, it will inherit tar's environment plus the following variables:

              TAR_VERSION
                     GNU tar version number.

              TAR_ARCHIVE
                     The name of the archive tar is processing.

              TAR_BLOCKING_FACTOR
                     Current blocking factor, i.e. number of 512-byte blocks in a record.

              TAR_VOLUME
                     Ordinal number of the volume tar is processing (set if reading a multi-volume archive).

              TAR_FORMAT
                     Format of the archive being processed.  One of: gnu, oldgnu, posix, ustar, v7.

              TAR_SUBCOMMAND
                     A short option (with a leading dash) describing the operation tar is executing.

              TAR_FD File descriptor which can be used to communicate the new volume name to tar.

              If the info script fails, tar exits; otherwise, it begins writing the next volume.

       -L, --tape-length=N
              Change tape after writing Nx1024 bytes.  If N is followed by a size suffix (see the subsection Size suffixes below), the suffix specifies the multiplicative factor to be used instead of 1024.

              This option implies -M.

       -M, --multi-volume
              Create/list/extract multi-volume archive.

       --rmt-command=COMMAND
              Use COMMAND instead of rmt when accessing remote archives.  See the description of the -f option, above.

       --rsh-command=COMMAND
              Use COMMAND instead of rsh when accessing remote archives.  See the description of the -f option, above.

       --volno-file=FILE
              When this option is used in conjunction with --multi-volume, tar will keep track of which volume of a multi-volume archive it is working in FILE.

   Device blocking
       -b, --blocking-factor=BLOCKS
              Set record size to BLOCKSx512 bytes.

       -B, --read-full-records
              When listing or extracting, accept incomplete input records after end-of-file marker.

       -i, --ignore-zeros
              Ignore zeroed blocks in archive.  Normally two consecutive 512-blocks filled with zeroes mean EOF and tar stops reading after encountering them.  This option instructs it to read further and is
              useful when reading archives created with the -A option.

       --record-size=NUMBER
              Set  record  size.  NUMBER is the number of bytes per record.  It must be multiple of 512.  It can can be suffixed with a size suffix, e.g. --record-size=10K, for 10 Kilobytes.  See the subsec‐
              tion Size suffixes, for a list of valid suffixes.

   Archive format selection
       -H, --format=FORMAT
              Create archive of the given format.  Valid formats are:

              gnu    GNU tar 1.13.x format

              oldgnu GNU format as per tar <= 1.12.

              pax, posix
                     POSIX 1003.1-2001 (pax) format.

              ustar  POSIX 1003.1-1988 (ustar) format.

              v7     Old V7 tar format.

       --old-archive, --portability
              Same as --format=v7.

       --pax-option=keyword[[:]=value][,keyword[[:]=value]]...
              Control pax keywords when creating PAX archives (-H pax).  This option is equivalent to the -o option of the pax(1) utility.

       --posix
              Same as --format=posix.

       -V, --label=TEXT
              Create archive with volume name TEXT.  If listing or extracting, use TEXT as a globbing pattern for volume name.

   Compression options
       -a, --auto-compress
              Use archive suffix to determine the compression program.

       -I, --use-compress-program=COMMAND
              Filter data through COMMAND.  It must accept the -d option, for decompression.  The argument can contain command line options.

       -j, --bzip2
              Filter the archive through bzip2(1).

       -J, --xz
              Filter the archive through xz(1).

       --lzip Filter the archive through lzip(1).

       --lzma Filter the archive through lzma(1).

       --lzop Filter the archive through lzop(1).

       --no-auto-compress
              Do not use archive suffix to determine the compression program.

       -z, --gzip, --gunzip, --ungzip
              Filter the archive through gzip(1).

       -Z, --compress, --uncompress
              Filter the archive through compress(1).

       --zstd Filter the archive through zstd(1).

   Local file selection
       --add-file=FILE
              Add FILE to the archive (useful if its name starts with a dash).

       --backup[=CONTROL]
              Backup before removal.  The CONTROL argument, if supplied, controls the backup policy.  Its valid values are:

              none, off
                     Never make backups.

              t, numbered
                     Make numbered backups.

              nil, existing
                     Make numbered backups if numbered backups exist, simple backups otherwise.

              never, simple
                     Always make simple backups

              If CONTROL is not given, the value is taken from the VERSION_CONTROL environment variable.  If it is not set, existing is assumed.

       -C, --directory=DIR
              Change to DIR before performing any operations.  This option is order-sensitive, i.e. it affects all options that follow.

       --exclude=PATTERN
              Exclude files matching PATTERN, a glob(3)-style wildcard pattern.

       --exclude-backups
              Exclude backup and lock files.

       --exclude-caches
              Exclude contents of directories containing file CACHEDIR.TAG, except for the tag file itself.

       --exclude-caches-all
              Exclude directories containing file CACHEDIR.TAG and the file itself.

       --exclude-caches-under
              Exclude everything under directories containing CACHEDIR.TAG

       --exclude-ignore=FILE
              Before dumping a directory, see if it contains FILE.  If so, read exclusion patterns from this file.  The patterns affect only the directory itself.

       --exclude-ignore-recursive=FILE
              Same as --exclude-ignore, except that patterns from FILE affect both the directory and all its subdirectories.

       --exclude-tag=FILE
              Exclude contents of directories containing FILE, except for FILE itself.

       --exclude-tag-all=FILE
              Exclude directories containing FILE.

       --exclude-tag-under=FILE
              Exclude everything under directories containing FILE.

       --exclude-vcs
              Exclude version control system directories.

       --exclude-vcs-ignores
              Exclude files that match patterns read from VCS-specific ignore files.  Supported files are: .cvsignore, .gitignore, .bzrignore, and .hgignore.

       -h, --dereference
              Follow symlinks; archive and dump the files they point to.

       --hard-dereference
              Follow hard links; archive and dump the files they refer to.

       -K, --starting-file=MEMBER
              Begin at the given member in the archive.

       --newer-mtime=DATE
              Work on files whose data changed after the DATE.  If DATE starts with / or . it is taken to be a file name; the mtime of that file is used as the date.

       --no-null
              Disable the effect of the previous --null option.

       --no-recursion
              Avoid descending automatically in directories.

       --no-unquote
              Do not unquote input file or member names.

       --no-verbatim-files-from
              Treat each line read from a file list as if it were supplied in the command line.  I.e., leading and trailing whitespace is removed and, if the resulting  string  begins  with  a  dash,  it  is
              treated as tar command line option.

              This is the default behavior.  The --no-verbatim-files-from option is provided as a way to restore it after --verbatim-files-from option.

              This option is positional: it affects all --files-from options that occur after it in, until --verbatim-files-from option or end of line, whichever occurs first.

              It is implied by the --no-null option.

       --null Instruct subsequent -T options to read null-terminated names verbatim (disables special handling of names that start with a dash).

              See also --verbatim-files-from.

       -N, --newer=DATE, --after-date=DATE
              Only store files newer than DATE.  If DATE starts with / or . it is taken to be a file name; the mtime of that file is used as the date.

       --one-file-system
              Stay in local file system when creating archive.

       -P, --absolute-names
              Don't strip leading slashes from file names when creating archives.

       --recursion
              Recurse into directories (default).

       --suffix=STRING
              Backup before removal, override usual suffix.  Default suffix is ~, unless overridden by environment variable SIMPLE_BACKUP_SUFFIX.

       -T, --files-from=FILE
              Get names to extract or create from FILE.

              Unless  specified  otherwise, the FILE must contain a list of names separated by ASCII LF (i.e. one name per line).  The names read are handled the same way as command line arguments.  They un‐
              dergo quote removal and word splitting, and any string that starts with a - is handled as tar command line option.

              If this behavior is undesirable, it can be turned off using the --verbatim-files-from option.

              The --null option instructs tar that the names in FILE are separated by ASCII NUL character, instead of LF.  It is useful if the list is generated by find(1) -print0 predicate.

       --unquote
              Unquote file or member names (default).

       --verbatim-files-from
              Treat each line obtained from a file list as a file name, even if it starts with a dash.  File lists are supplied with the --files-from (-T) option.  The default behavior  is  to  handle  names
              supplied in file lists as if they were typed in the command line, i.e. any names starting with a dash are treated as tar options.  The --verbatim-files-from option disables this behavior.

              This option affects all --files-from options that occur after it in the command line.  Its effect is reverted by the --no-verbatim-files-from} option.

              This option is implied by the --null option.

              See also --add-file.

       -X, --exclude-from=FILE
              Exclude files matching patterns listed in FILE.

   File name transformations
       --strip-components=NUMBER
              Strip NUMBER leading components from file names on extraction.

       --transform=EXPRESSION, --xform=EXPRESSION
              Use sed replace EXPRESSION to transform file names.

   File name matching options
       These options affect both exclude and include patterns.

       --anchored
              Patterns match file name start.

       --ignore-case
              Ignore case.

       --no-anchored
              Patterns match after any / (default for exclusion).

       --no-ignore-case
              Case sensitive matching (default).

       --no-wildcards
              Verbatim string matching.

       --no-wildcards-match-slash
              Wildcards do not match /.

       --wildcards
              Use wildcards (default for exclusion).

       --wildcards-match-slash
              Wildcards match / (default for exclusion).

   Informative output
       --checkpoint[=N]
              Display progress messages every Nth record (default 10).

       --checkpoint-action=ACTION
              Run ACTION on each checkpoint.

       --clamp-mtime
              Only set time when the file is more recent than what was given with --mtime.

       --full-time
              Print file time to its full resolution.

       --index-file=FILE
              Send verbose output to FILE.

       -l, --check-links
              Print a message if not all links are dumped.

       --no-quote-chars=STRING
              Disable quoting for characters from STRING.

       --quote-chars=STRING
              Additionally quote characters from STRING.

       --quoting-style=STYLE
              Set quoting style for file and member names.  Valid values for STYLE are literal, shell, shell-always, c, c-maybe, escape, locale, clocale.

       -R, --block-number
              Show block number within archive with each message.

       --show-omitted-dirs
              When listing or extracting, list each directory that does not match search criteria.

       --show-transformed-names, --show-stored-names
              Show file or archive names after transformation by --strip and --transform options.

       --totals[=SIGNAL]
              Print  total  bytes after processing the archive.  If SIGNAL is given, print total bytes when this signal is delivered.  Allowed signals are: SIGHUP, SIGQUIT, SIGINT, SIGUSR1, and SIGUSR2.  The
              SIG prefix can be omitted.

       --utc  Print file modification times in UTC.

       -v, --verbose
              Verbosely list files processed.  Each instance of this option on the command line increases the verbosity level by one.  The maximum verbosity level is 3.  For a detailed discussion of how var‐
              ious verbosity levels affect tar's output, please refer to GNU Tar Manual, subsection 2.5.1 "The --verbose Option".

       --warning=KEYWORD
              Enable or disable warning messages identified by KEYWORD.  The messages are suppressed if KEYWORD is prefixed with no- and enabled otherwise.

              Multiple --warning messages accumulate.

              Keywords controlling general tar operation:

              all    Enable all warning messages.  This is the default.

              none   Disable all warning messages.

              filename-with-nuls
                     "%s: file name read contains nul character"

              alone-zero-block
                     "A lone zero block at %s"

              Keywords applicable for tar --create:

              cachedir
                     "%s: contains a cache directory tag %s; %s"

              file-shrank
                     "%s: File shrank by %s bytes; padding with zeros"

              xdev   "%s: file is on a different filesystem; not dumped"

              file-ignored
                     "%s: Unknown file type; file ignored"
                     "%s: socket ignored"
                     "%s: door ignored"

              file-unchanged
                     "%s: file is unchanged; not dumped"

              ignore-archive
                     "%s: file is the archive; not dumped"

              file-removed
                     "%s: File removed before we read it"

              file-changed
                     "%s: file changed as we read it"

              failed-read
                     Suppresses warnings about unreadable files or directories. This keyword applies only if used together with the --ignore-failed-read option.

              Keywords applicable for tar --extract:

              existing-file
                     "%s: skipping existing file"

              timestamp
                     "%s: implausibly old time stamp %s"
                     "%s: time stamp %s is %s s in the future"

              contiguous-cast
                     "Extracting contiguous files as regular files"

              symlink-cast
                     "Attempting extraction of symbolic links as hard links"

              unknown-cast
                     "%s: Unknown file type '%c', extracted as normal file"

              ignore-newer
                     "Current %s is newer or same age"

              unknown-keyword
                     "Ignoring unknown extended header keyword '%s'"

              decompress-program
                     Controls  verbose description of failures occurring when trying to run alternative decompressor programs.  This warning is disabled by default (unless --verbose is used).  A common exam‐
                     ple of what you can get when using this warning is:

                     $ tar --warning=decompress-program -x -f archive.Z
                     tar (child): cannot run compress: No such file or directory
                     tar (child): trying gzip

                     This means that tar first tried to decompress archive.Z using compress, and, when that failed, switched to gzip.

              record-size
                     "Record size = %lu blocks"

              Keywords controlling incremental extraction:

              rename-directory
                     "%s: Directory has been renamed from %s"
                     "%s: Directory has been renamed"

              new-directory
                     "%s: Directory is new"

              xdev   "%s: directory is on a different device: not purging"

              bad-dumpdir
                     "Malformed dumpdir: 'X' never used"

       -w, --interactive, --confirmation
              Ask for confirmation for every action.

   Compatibility options
       -o     When creating, same as --old-archive.  When extracting, same as --no-same-owner.

   Size suffixes
               Suffix    Units                   Byte Equivalent
               b         Blocks                  SIZE x 512
               B         Kilobytes               SIZE x 1024
               c         Bytes                   SIZE
               G         Gigabytes               SIZE x 1024^3
               K         Kilobytes               SIZE x 1024
               k         Kilobytes               SIZE x 1024
               M         Megabytes               SIZE x 1024^2
               P         Petabytes               SIZE x 1024^5
               T         Terabytes               SIZE x 1024^4
               w         Words                   SIZE x 2

RETURN VALUE
       Tar exit code indicates whether it was able to successfully perform the requested operation, and if not, what kind of error occurred.

       0      Successful termination.

       1      Some files differ.  If tar was invoked with the --compare (--diff, -d) command line option, this means that some files in the archive differ from their disk counterparts.  If tar was given  one
              of  the  --create,  --append or --update options, this exit code means that some files were changed while being archived and so the resulting archive does not contain the exact copy of the file
              set.

       2      Fatal error.  This means that some fatal, unrecoverable error occurred.

       If a subprocess that had been invoked by tar exited with a nonzero exit code, tar itself exits with that code as well.  This can happen, for example, if a compression option (e.g. -z) was used and the
       external compressor program failed.  Another example is rmt failure during backup to a remote device.

SEE ALSO
       bzip2(1), compress(1), gzip(1), lzma(1), lzop(1), rmt(8), symlink(7), xz(1), zstd(1).

       Complete tar manual: run info tar or use emacs(1) info mode to read it.

       Online copies of GNU tar documentation in various formats can be found at:

           http://www.gnu.org/software/tar/manual

BUG REPORTS
       Report bugs to <bug-tar@gnu.org>.

COPYRIGHT
       Copyright © 2013-2019 Free Software Foundation, Inc.
       License GPLv3+: GNU GPL version 3 or later <http://gnu.org/licenses/gpl.html>
       This is free software: you are free to change and redistribute it.  There is NO WARRANTY, to the extent permitted by law.

TAR                                                                                              July 13, 2020                                                                                           TAR(1)
